Snared

We didn’t see you at the hospital and you never called us back. We thought you might care, but obviously you don’t give a crap.”

Ev was in the hospital? The news came as a shock. No wonder Mel and Tee gave her such nasty looks. They thought Lindsay was still Ev’s friend, and she hadn’t even visited her. That also explained why Char wasn’t with them. If Ev was sick, Char would never leave her bedside.

“I didn’t know she was sick,” Lindsay said, feeling awful. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. Sure you are.” Tee crossed her arms over her chest.

“Is she okay?”

“Like you care,” Mel said. “She’s having this total nervous breakdown, and you stand here talking trash about her. I do not think so.”

“Oh my god,” Lindsay whispered, shocked. “I didn’t know.”

“Whatevs!” Tee said. She spun on her heels.

Mel did the same, and a moment later they both walked away through the crowded food court.

In her room at her uncle’s house, Lindsay removed tags from the shorts she’d bought Mark. She folded the shorts and the T-shirts. She placed everything in the blue gym bag. As she did so, she thought about Mel and Tee. Thought about Ev.

A nervous breakdown? That was awful.

What did she see in Mark’s room?

Lindsay tried to fold that thought and put it away, like another pair of shorts. More than likely Ev was on her way to crazy before that night. She was so young and suddenly faced with all of this pressure in her career, and she snapped. That was logical enough. Lindsay wanted to believe it, but didn’t. Something had driven Ev out of her mind.

She saw Mark’s guardians in that room.

They perform these rituals sometimes.

Ev stumbled onto one of these rituals, and it must have been horrible.

Like I said, some of that junk is just full-on creepy.

But why were they performing rituals in Mark’s room? God, what were they going to do to him? Lindsay went to the window and looked out. The shade was down over Mark’s window. He couldn’t even call her. He couldn’t call for help because he’d returned her cell phone. He was alone down there, trapped in that house with two men who were becoming more and more dangerous.

Lindsay zipped up the blue gym bag, now filled with supplies for Mark. Would she get the chance to give it to him?

“Are you like totally in love with him?” Kate gushed.

“No,” Lindsay said. “God, I hardly know him.”

“Has he kissed you yet?”

“Yes.”

“You totally have to stick to our pact. Even if you are on vacation. It still counts.”

“Don’t be a freak, Kate.”

Lindsay hadn’t even thought about the pact in months. Last year, after watching Titanic for the billionth time, they swore to each other that they wouldn’t go all the way until they were really, totally, completely in love. It had to be a Leo-Kate kind of love or else it didn’t count. Looking back on it now, Lindsay found the pact rather childish and wondered why she ever agreed to it in the first place. It was like two little girls swearing they would only marry princes or something.

“So, is he taking you out or what?”

“Not really,” Lindsay said. “There’s no place to go but the beach. So we just kind of hang around the house.”

That wasn’t too much of a lie.

“I’m so jealous,” Kate said. “I can’t believe you snared yourself a boyfriend. No one’s ever going to talk to me again, not after the tragic fun-suck of a party.”

“Trey said he had a great time,” Lindsay assured for the fourth time. “He said everyone had a really good time. Well, except for Constance.”

“She’s such a skank engine. She knew I liked Chad. I totally told her last week, and the first thing she does is climb on him. At my party! In my BED!”

Then Kate launched into another ten-minute rant about the girls at school and how she didn’t trust any of them, except for Lindsay of course. Lindsay grunted and said, “yeah,” in all the right places. She knew how girls could be. She’d seen Ev in action.

Instead of feeling angry when she thought about Ev, Lindsay found herself feeling sorry for the girl. It was strange. She didn’t like Ev, but she pitied her. Ev was calculating and driven and would have done anything to escape Redlands Beach. It was her one dream: to get out. But she wouldn’t get out now. She’d seen something that drove her crazy, and traded the glamour of a blossoming career for a hospital bed in a psychiatric ward.

“Are you seeing him tomorrow?” Kate asked.

“What?” Lindsay said. “Oh. Depends on his dads.”

She crossed to the window again and looked out. Mr. Richter stood beneath the scraggly tree, facing the house.

“They’re really strict,” Lindsay said.

“That’s weird. Rachel’s moms are totally cool. Maybe it’s a guy thing.”

“Yeah,” Lindsay said, forcing a laugh. “It might be.”

She wanted to spill everything to Kate, wanted to tell her about Mark’s abusive guardians. How he was all alone with them. How he couldn’t contact help. She wanted to tell her best friend about Ev, and how she’d melted down after seeing something in that house. She wanted to let Kate know that she was going to help Mark. It wasn’t much, just a few supplies to get him started.

She didn’t take the chance telling Kate, though. She couldn’t. Not yet. When it was all done and Mark was safely away, Lindsay would tell Kate everything. Until then, she needed to stay quiet.

13

The rain finally stopped. Her parents announced they were going to take “a snooze for about an hour.” Lindsay returned to her room and went to the window.

She was surprised to note that neither Doug nor Jack stood in the yard, at least no place where she could see them. She was more surprised to see Mark in his window, looking up at her. He waved his arm frantically for her to come over. He looked totally desperate to talk to her.

Lindsay rushed down the stairs and out the door. At the side of the house, she paused, wondering how she would get near his window without leaving tracks in the sand. The answer appeared quickly enough.

Like her uncle’s house, Mark’s sat up off the ground, giving way to low thatches of grass. All Lindsay had to do was cling to the side of the house and step on those. Sure she would still leave prints, but they wouldn’t be nearly as obvious as tromping through the sand. She moved fast but carefully from one tuft of grass to the next.

At Mark’s window, she peered in. He stood on the other side of the small desk, looking absolutely miserable. His eyes were swollen as if he’d been crying. Dark circles painted the puffy skin beneath. He looked very thin and quite ill.

Lindsay put her palms against the glass and pulled, but it didn’t budge. Inside, Mark shook his head.

“They locked it,” he called.

“Are you okay?” Lindsay asked, trying to make her voice just loud enough for Mark to hear, but not so loud it